Gaining the good stuff as I lose the bad.

Welcome to High-Risk Pregnancy

The previous two babies were easy enough ( I mean, I vomited all the time, but there wasn’t anything seriously wrong with me) but this one is an entirely different.

I went into the doctor last Tuesday for my 16 week visit. It was supposed to be a fast and simple visit. Instead, the standard urine dipstick test came back positive for protein, a decent amount. And the blood pressure we up, although still within the borderline range. The doctor said, no one gets pre-eclampsia this early, although I do, of course, have a lot of risk factors. My age and weight are against me, I’ve now had two sisters develop pre-eclampsia, and apparently it’s a risk factor that it’s a new father.

They took some blood and they gave me a massive jug and told me to save all my urine for the next 24 hours (FUN!) and then I was supposed to return for more blood tests the next day when I returned my urine. And in the interim, bedrest.

Here’s something you don’t realize till it happens: bedrest is boring as hell. Considering that watching TV and reading is on my happy list, you’d think it would be fun, but what makes reading and watching TV fun is the knowledge that you’re on a break. When your actual job is to rest, the hours stretch out into infinity and you want to scream. Plus, I can’t really settle to anything because I’m so so nervous about what’s happening. I can’t focus on work, I can’t read more than a few pages at a time, it’s a real problem.

Anyway. The blood tests were all good but the urine was bad. The blood pressure came back down, likely because of the bedrest. The perinatologist was booked until this coming Monday (the 8th) and since the blood pressure and blood was good they said that’s ok, I can wait that long. And in the meantime, modified bedrest. I can drive and sit but nothing with walking, no dog walks, no grocery stores.

The good news is, my adjusted protein count is only about 360 and they won’t induce me till it hits 5k. The bad news is, I’m still 7.5 weeks from the first possibility of the baby surviving. That’s March 22. Most people with pre-eclampsia don’t last 8 weeks. It’s all terrifying.